“I was in the Folklore triangle, but I wasn’t Betty”

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So I became friends with a girl during my sophomore year of high school. We were labeled “just friends” and weren't as close till halfway through our junior year when we shared the fourth period. But for the last two years, she has always gotten me presents. I usually get her things for Christmas, but she tends to for every holiday, especially Valentine's Day and Halloween. Since her birthday was before we were close, I didn't get her anything. However, for my birthday we spent the whole day hanging out with our mutual friends.

I realized I was beginning to have a crush on her in October, the beginning of junior year. She got me a full bag of candy and would always walk me to class, whether it be from classes that we shared or didn’t. She was always there next to me. One day, she left school for a doctor’s appointment and we only had one period left. I believed we weren't going to walk together to our last classes, but she came back to walk me after I pointed out I was going to be walking alone.

I decided to fight the feelings and focus on someone else (as she was my friend), but the feelings only came back. When she told me she had a crush, for a moment I believed it was going to be me. It wasn’t. It was my new friend I had just started hanging out with.

Fast forward to the summer before senior year, we were still as close as ever. We were always texting every few hours, playing together, and sometimes calling. I would post on my spam on some of our conversations and she would comment flirty things on it. She was there for me when I found out something shocking and made me sad.

When August rolled around, there was a sudden switch between us. I suddenly felt like I was texting her too much, and her responses felt like she was doing a chore. I chose to ignore everything because we were going back to school soon, and I didn’t want things to be awkward.

My first week of school. was going fine, till my new friend from earlier mentioned how my crush and I were always texting, in a jealous tone. My heart dropped. Why was she upset about that? The reason became more present later in the week, as she kept making small disses at me. When we were finally alone away from the people we hung out with, she told me she had something to say but I already knew. She told me she started to catch feelings for her a few days before school. It was my best friend. It was the girl I had liked for almost a year. My crush posted about someone a week later, and I knew that they had a thing going on. A week later my crush posted about liking someone and right away I knew they had something going on.

For the remainder of August, I felt like I was in the Folklore love triangle, but I wasn't Betty, I was Augustine: the other woman.